The National Geoscience Data Repository System (NGDRS) was initiated in response to the large quantities of at-risk geoscience data held by the oil industry. Funded by the US Department of Energy and the Petroleum Industry since 1995, the American Geological Institute has been developing the NGDRS as a system of geoscience data repositories, functioning as a clearinghouse for data now becoming available to the public domain, and for building coordination between existing data repositories.

The system is envisioned as a fully distributed system of data repositories joined together with the NGDRS metadata catalog, GeoTrekTM. A wide range of political and economic circumstances have been faced by the project, including full economic cycles in the petroleum industry, changes in Federal administrations, perceptions of funding competition, and poor relations between industry and academia in the geoscience community, let alone technology issues of managing distributed information systems.

xBy internally splitting the logical management of the project to focus on data transfer/preservation issues, and metadata catalog development and management, the NGDRS is positioning itself to firmly establish a foothold in the community. By remaining opportunistic on data transfers AGI has been able to extend the volume of at-risk data transferred. Additionally, moving to open-source and/or GPL'ed solutions for the Metadata Catalog, AGI is focused on reducing the cost of entry and maximize the level of control participating repositories have in the GeoTrek system, all targeted at expanding the scope of holdings and listings.